Avian Flu

[Scorn]

What has been made in the US regarding the threat of an Avian Flu (or H5N1 as it's also known) pandemic? Here in Canada it's all the rage right now. For the last few weeks anyway. I can't turn on the news or read the paper without seing another story on the topic. Perhaps it's mostly a west coast thing as it seems we may be the first line of defence from Vietnam and Taiwan. Anyway, just wondering if America is experiencing the same media phenom?

 

[Green Gaia]

I haven't heard anything about it, but then I don't watch much TV. Haven't heard anything on NPR either.

 

[Scorn]

I suppose I could have looked it up to find what the US reaction was.

I'm not looking to cause a panic but here is one snip from Feb 23rd

“We at WHO believe that the world is now in the gravest possible danger of a pandemic,” Dr. Shigeru Omi, the WHO’s Western Pacific regional director, said Wednesday.

He said the world is “now overdue” for an influenza pandemic, since mass epidemics have occurred every 20 to 30 years. It has been nearly 40 years since the last one.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6861065/

Perhaps it's over reaction but there's just too much of it in the news here to ignore.

 

[Bastet]

Go back 12 months and we had similar news stories here in Australia. It was the reason I became vegetarian at the time (since chicken had been the only meat I was still eating then). I've since gone back to eating meat, and haven't heard anything about bird flu here for months and months now (although the two incidents were unrelated this time).

 

[michel]

According to the papers, It is regarded as a forgone conclusion that it will rear it's ugly head here in the UK.

 

[Valjean]

The potential pandemic is being discussed here in the States, but it's understandable that Canadians would be more concerned, considering their recent experience with SARS.